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Friday, March 29, 2013

I am so excited, happy and proud: Mich Café has been nominated in
two categories at the Beirut Social Media Awards 2013.

The Social Media Awards (SMA) allow the Lebanese online community to nominate, vote for
and award bloggers, journalists, content creators, community managers, public personalities,
social media users and celebrities for their efforts in communication and
online creation. There
are 33 categories.

I was at
work and offline when news of the nominations began to appear on Facebook and
Twitter. But I soon caught up.

Amid the
congratulations, there were these two tweets from my dear friends Liliane Assaf
and Alexander McNabb:

It is thanks, in great part, to the Lebanese online community that
I started Mich Café. There were so many interesting blogs around, all listed at
Lebanon Aggregator, a site created by Lilane.
Somehow, it seemed very important to get on that site!

Unlike many other online communities, the Lebanon one is extremely
active and vibrant.

My first encounter with this community was in November 2009, when
I returned to Beirut after an absence of 20 years. I was greeted with a tweetup
organized by Darine Sabbagh, who became a dear friend in real life and is one
of the SMA judges. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Social media is part of the way of life in Lebanon. You can’t walk
down the street without meeting at least two or three friends who are on
Twitter or Facebook and have blogs. Even those I don’t know recognize me from
my picture and stop to say hello.

Mich Café is my passion in that I can express my inner thoughts
and write on topics I feel strongly about. These of course include my family
and friends, human rights in general and women’s rights in particular. It is
also where I share anything I am up to. Mich Café is, in one word, me.

The two categories Mich
Café has been nominated in are:

Blog of the Year

Blog
Baladi -- www.blogbaladi.com

Gino's
Blog -- www.ginosblog.com

Beirut
Spring -- www.beirutspring.com

Hummus
Nation -- www.hummusnation.net

Separate
State of Mind -- www.stateofmind13.com

Mich Café -- michcafe.blogspot.com

Beirut
Boy -- guymeetsworld.wordpress.com

Best Lifestyle Blog

Mich Café | michcafe.blogspot.com

Let's
tlk abt movies -- www.tlkabtmovies.com

Homos
Libnani -- homoslibnani.wordpress.com

Nads
Reviews -- www.nadsreviews.com

Architecture
Lab -- www.architecturelab.net

If the
bag Fits -- www.ifthebagfits.com

The
finalists were announced at a press conference held Wednesday, March 27, at the Phoenicia
Hotel. This followed a month-long nomination stage from the online community.
There were over 600 nominations collected across the 33 categories.

Online
voting for the finalists starts April 1 atwww.smabeirut.com. The awards ceremony at the Phoenicia Hotel is slated for April 29.

SMA is
the brainchild of the American University of Beirut’s Online Collaborative (AUBOC) in partnership
with Beirut popular RAGMAG Magazine to honor individuals and organizations that
have demonstrated an exceptional presence in social media in Lebanon. (You can view the full list of nominees on RAGMAG's website.)

AUBOC
aims to group social
media enthusiasts and experienced individuals in the digital media world to
help promote proper digital citizenship.

Mohammad
Hijazi, chief collaborator of AUBOC and a judge on SMA2013, says in an interview with RAGMAG, “There is no objective organization evaluating
and identifying the social media scene in Lebanon, and we hope the SMAs will
provide a platform for people to be distinguished objectively, based on their
social media presence.”

The OC, he explainsis an initiative “I started back when I was a
student at AUB. My initial aim was to gather bloggers and social media users
under one organization to unify and maximize their online social effort. In
2010, our journey began with ‘Blogging Lebanon,’ a conference that shed light
on the then upcoming blogging scene in Lebanon. Since then, we have held
numerous workshops for students from schools and universities to teach them the
proper usage of social media. We have also held entertaining events such as
GeekFest Beirut 5.0 in 2012, several tweetups and informative conferences such
as ‘Social Media Changing Lives’ in 2011. In addition, we are currently giving
five technology related courses for senior citizens at AUB as part of the
University for Seniors.”

Thursday, March 21, 2013

I
think of you every moment of the day, but it’s Mother’s Day again… and the
first day of Spring, our favorite month.

All
I will hear today is friends’ wishes to their moms and it makes me miss you
even more.

It
doesn’t get easier, even after 22 years, to keep going without your love,
warmth, sense of humor, wit, wisdom and presence.

You
gave resilience and coping, in sickness and in health, a whole new meaning.
These are lessons I have learnt for a lifetime.

The
first thing I asked out loud, a minute after you left us is, “What will I do
now?”

Well,
although the pain doesn’t go away, I have learnt to live with it and manage as
best I can.

You
would have enjoyed the computer age. I think your Facebook page would have been
full of friends. You would have been the queen of Twitter’s social and
political discussions. Skype would have been perfect for you to talk to family
and friends. You were always the star at any gathering and social networks
would have been just your things.

It's Spring...

As
I was telling you, it’s the first day of Spring. I have petunias on my windowsill
and bougainvillea on my trellises. But I still haven’t found our favorite
fuchsias in Dubai. I will keep looking.

The
palm trees are beginning to grow dates in anticipation of Ramadan in July and
the pavements and roundabouts here in Dubai are carpeted with pink, purple and
white petunias. It looks magnificent.

But
it doesn’t look so good around us. Palestine is still occupied, Syria is
bleeding and Lebanon is on the brink…

This
Mother’s Day is therefore dedicated to you, dearest Vicky, who I love and miss, but also to the courageous mothers of Palestine, Syria and
Lebanon.

You
loved Marcel Khalife mom, and no Mother’s
Day is complete without his “Ommi” (Arabic for “my mom”).

Monday, March 18, 2013

One of my worst nightmares is not to have a roof over my
head and not to have a home to return to every night.

I was therefore in shock to find out a couple of weeks ago,
purely by chance, that one of my friends had been sleeping rough on a beach in
Jumeirah for the past four months.

It is a testimony to her dignity, resilience, good nature
and strength that I, and the rest of her friends, didn’t know about her predicament
and experience. Most of them still don’t.

My friend -- who I shall call Eva to protect her privacy --
only told me when she was preparing to move to a studio and I got curious about
why she was leaving her current lodgings.

Although a common friend and I begged her to stay with either
of us, she refused, saying she did not want to inconvenience anyone.

After a couple of months in a new job, Eva last week moved
to a studio.

My friend used to live in Abu Dhabi and work at a restaurant
in Dubai. After a failed relationship there and the restaurant closing down
(fortunately the visa was extended until she could find a new job), she moved
to Dubai with little funds.

She had to put her belongings in storage, which is quite
expensive.What little money she had left was invested on renting a car, which
would become her home.

Because she had two cats, she decided the best place to park
for the night would be opposite one of Jumeirah’s free beaches. That became her
“camping site,” as Eva puts it.

The first couple of weeks were difficult, she told me. She had to get
some kind of system going.

First was getting the immediate neighborhood used to the
sight of her in the car.Then actually sleeping in the car – Eva, a mother and
grandmother, is a big woman who had to practically twist three ways in her
little Hyundai.

In November (2012) it was lots of fun, Eva told me. The
weather still being hot in Dubai, it was easier to cope. “It was a new
experience. I treated it as a camping holiday. I would wake up at sunrise, go
for a run, roller skate, swim, sit and read on the beach while all the time
searching the Internet for a job.”

She says she never felt better or fitter and switched her
diet to raw food.

The neighbors, or rather those who were awake at sunrise –
mostly drivers, cleaners, and housemaids walking dogs… -- got to know the newcomer.
As did the police patrols.

It is a tribute to Dubai Police that they never bothered Eva
and seemed to adopt her and keep an eye on her.

At first, they did stop to ask what she was doing. They checked
her papers and found them in order. She told them she was looking for a job,
then had found a job and was saving up for accommodation.

Once Police knew there was no wrongdoing, they left her in
peace and kept looking after her.

She was only once woken up by a new patrol because she had
left her car window open. They knocked at the car window panel, and after
making sure she was alone in the car, heard the story and moved on.

She has only words of praise for the men in
uniform who she cannot thank enough for their understanding, support and
protection.

Eva, who slept quite early, says what was most awkward were
people peering into the car windows, mostly because of her two cats sleeping in
the back window ledge. But she got used to it and would just shut her eyes and
drift off.

Another problem to solve while sleeping rough was where to
wash and do laundry. Luckily, most weekends she could visit friends in Abu
Dhabi and do her machine or pass by a friend with a load full with some excuse
or another.

The public showers on the Jumeirah free beaches were also a
great convenience as were the mall washrooms. All the mall security personnel
got to know their early morning visitor and became friendly too.

I remember when we got together and mentioned the
weather, she was always concerned about the night temperature, especially in
January when it was quite cold after sunset. I would tell her I didn't care about
the temperature at night, as I would be at home!

Her concern made sense later, and I feel so guilty now. It
was cold sleeping in the car.

Another indicator I didn't catch was when one day we were
out and a friend asked Eva for a lift home. She said there was no place in the
car. I had noticed clothes hanging in the back and lot of things in the front
seat. But...

Eva, who found a job in December, moved into her studio last week. She misses the fresh air of the beach
but is happy to now sleep straight and have a bathroom of her own.

In the past four months, I never saw her rumpled, in the
same clothes twice, depressed, bitter or not her usual joyful self.

The theme for 2013, “The Gender
Agenda: Gaining Momentum,” celebrates these feats while remaining vigilant and
tenacious for further sustainable change.

Every day, we are reminded of
the threats women face and the scourge of gender violence.

Two tragic events in late 2012
shook the world and spurred the drive for championing women’s equality and
human rights: The October 9 dramatic shooting by the Taliban of 14-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai for
going to school and advocating for girls’ education, and the December 16 gang-rape in Delhi that killed Jyoti Singh.

Such outrages take place daily
throughout the world. They have prompted greater efforts to fight violence
against women and rape.

On a brighter side, women now hold thepresident’s officein 17 countries; worldwide thematernal mortalityrate has fallen by more than one-third; and global
literacy rates for girls have shot up to 74% from 55%.

Over
two-thirds of the world's 793 million illiterate adultsare found in only eight
countries -- Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia,
India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. But of all the illiterate adults in the
world, two-thirds are women. Extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in
three regions -- the Arab states, South and West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa --
where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate.

Cultural, social and political benefits can be translated into
society through education.

The first step on the long road to equal
opportunities and development has to be through education.

The Internet has made the world a smaller
place. It would have taken us weeks to hear or read about cases such as those
in India and Pakistan a little over a decade ago. In the online era, such cases
of violence against women can no longer be ignored or hushed up.

The same goes for countries such as Egypt
and Syria where women are at the forefront the uprisings and holding
communities together. But we still hear of them being raped and beaten in public
squares or regime dungeons.

It is strange and sad that after 21centuries
(and I am only counting the AD ones) parts of the human race have not yet learned
men and women can be partners. It is sad and repulsive that many men still need
to show their superiority through violence and rape.

This year -- already dubbed the “Year to
End Rape” -- will hopefully help reduce this scourge. It will be a year were
our rights as human beings are non-negotiable.

There should be a special place -- like
Dante’s “anti-Inferno”-- for those who do not speak out against these
injustices, who have no opinion and who compromise on such important issues as rape
and violence against women.

Today, on Women’s Day, as I do most days, I thank the women in my life for
being who they are, for guiding me and for shining a light on me.

I celebrate the women from all walks of life -- each talented in
her special way – who I meet daily and from whom I draw strength.

On this special day, I equally give thanks
and celebrate the men in my life who have helped and continue to help and
support me.

We are preordained to be a team – women and
men. There’s no escape.

Let’s walk life hand in hand and make
everyday Women's Day. Let’s try to do whatever we can to ensure the future for
women is bright, equal, safe and rewarding. Maybe, one day, we will celebrate Human’s
Day, with no need to qualify the gender!

Monday, March 4, 2013

That’s for the decision on whether or not Dubai is
chosen to host Expo 2020.

We wait, but not in silence, as all of us in the
Emirates, nationals and expatriates, support Dubai’s bid to host the world showcase.

“Philosophically, politically, creatively,
logistically, Dubai is already coming together to deliver a World Expo that
will inspire all who experience it and live long in the collective memory,” the
bid announces, and I can easily believe that.

I very much support Dubai Expo 2020 because I
decided to move here seven years ago and be part of the dream of building and
transforming the Emirates into a great Gulf/Arab nation-state.

Expo '67 in Montreal: The Dome, Habitat '67 and the Soviet pavilion

I also support the bid because I had the opportunity
in 1970 to visit the site of Expo ’67 in Montreal. Although it was three years
since the end of the world fair there, the site – newly created islands in the
St. Lawrence River and the existing Île Sainte-Hélène -- was still a crowd-getter for all
visitors to Montreal or Canada generally.

Of course, I couldn’t look
up all 90 pavilions at Expo
’67, representing “Man and His World” themes,
but I do remember touring the iconic U.S. pavilion – a geodesic domedesigned by Buckminster Fuller;Habitat ‘67modular housing complex designed by architectMoshe Safdie -- and the sought-after
Soviet pavilion, which pulled some 13 million visitors. Sadly, I can’t find my
photos!

But back to Dubai, where a delegation from the
International Exhibitions Bureau (IEB) dropped by last week to assess the
emirate’s bid.

Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Turkey are also vying to
host Expo 2020. The winner will be announced in November 2013 following a vote
by the 163 IEB member nations.

Steen Christiansen meets with Sheikh Mo

The Enquiry Mission, headed by Steen Christiansen,
chairman of the IEB Executive Committee, met with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of
Dubai, on February 26.

Sheikh Mo tweets his confidence in the UAE Expo 2020 bid

Sheikh Mo (as we affectionately call him) said he
“shared with the delegation our president's welcome message and his personal
support for the UAE to win the bid to host the exhibition. I am confident the
UAE has what it takes to host the biggest event in the history of Expo in 2020
and to impress the rest of the world.”

Christiansen said: “We have had a productive and
enjoyable visit to the UAE and thank the leadership for their hospitality. We
have been particularly impressed by the country’s robust infrastructure and the
level of national support for the bid.”

The mission’s four-day visit was to assess the
UAE’s aptitude for welcoming 25 million would-be visitors, of which 70 percent
would come from abroad for the first time in World Expo history.

The IEB press conference on February 28 (Gulf News)

“We have
been particularly impressed by the country’s robust infrastructure and the
level of national support for the bid. The UAE has put forward a strong case to
hold Expo 2020 in Dubai -- the vision of the project is clear and lined to the
traditions and values of World Expos,” Christensen said.

After visiting Russia and Brazil, the IEB Enquiry Mission
will prepare a report detailing their recommendation to the member states.

Dubai and the UAE have a ready platform
of airports, ports and road transport systems.

Dubai’s strategic global location
between the East and the West makes it the most sought-after destination for
the Expo.

There are approximately 200
nationalities living in the UAE, making the country truly global.

The proposed Expo site, Dubai Trade
Center in Jebel Ali, is situated next to the new Dubai World Central -- home to
Al Maktoum International Airport, and is equidistant between Dubai and Abu
Dhabi.

The site, spanning 438 hectares, is
located adjacent to Jebel Ali Port, providing easy access to the 25 million
international and local visitors expected.

Dubai’s two airports -- Dubai
International and DWC-Al-Maktoum International -- are best geared to handle the
Expo traffic in 2020.

Dubai International will be the world’s
busiest airport by 2020 in terms of passenger throughput.

Dubai Logistics City is part of a
single customs-bonded free zone linked to Jebel Ali Port, the sixth largest in
the world, and the Jebel Ali Free Zone, home to more than 6,400 companies.

Dubai had around 15 million tourists
last year, while Abu Dhabi managed to attract 2 million. And the number is only
set to grow with each passing year.

The hotel supply in the UAE is expected
to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.3 percent from 96,992 hotel
rooms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to 125,383 hotel rooms in the two emirates by
2016. And a successful 2020 Expo bid will increase that.

Today it does not take business owners
more than three days to start up their businesses officially in Dubai.

By 2020, the emirate will be able to
offer enough transport links to accommodate about 25 million visitors for Expo
2020.

The mass-transit options for Expo 2020
will include zero-emission buses, new Metro stations and dedicated lanes on key
arterial roads to take visitors to the planned site at Dubai Trade Center --
Jebel Ali.

Both Dubai and the UAE are dynamic and
multicultural destinations capable of giving the world an exciting and dynamic
event.

The IEB, an intergovernmental organization created to
supervise international exhibitions, was established in Paris in 1928 with two
goals:

to oversee the calendar, the bidding, the selection and the
organization of World Expositions; and

to establish a regulatory framework under which Expo
organizers and participants may work together under the best conditions.

The USA had its membership of the IEB withdrawn in June 2001
due to Congress not allocating membership funds for two years.

Since the start of the 21st century, Universal Expos occur
every five years, lasting six months, on “5” and “0” ending years, i.e. Expo 2010 in Shanghai, Expo 2015 in Milan.

Expos average at least 200,000 visitors per day and some 50
to 70 million visitors during their six-month duration. Montreal's Expo ‘67
attracted 54 million visitors; Osaka’s Expo ’70, 64 million; Seville Expo '92,
41 million; and Shanghai's Expo 2010, 70 million visitors.

Dubai’s theme

“Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” is the theme for
the UAE’s Expo bid.

In today’s highly interconnected world, “a renewed vision of
progress and development based on shared purpose and commitment is key. While a
single human mind, an individual country, or a specific community is both
unique and remarkable, it is by working collaboratively that we truly advance.Dubai Expo 2020 will be a platform for connectivity to help
pioneer new partnerships for growth and sustainability for the future,” Dubai’s
Expo 2020 site writes.

The UAE is logistically ready to host a World Expo. Two thirds of the
world’s population now lives within an eight-hour flight of Dubai. Just fewer
than nine million visitors made the trip here last year. Some 80,000-plus hotel
rooms will keep visitors comfortable during their stay for the Expo. Unrivalled
connectivity, superb logistics and world-class infrastructure are at the heart
of our bid.

Last year alone, more than 51 million passengers travelled through
Dubai International Airport, where 150 airlines serve 220 destinations on six
continents. Dubai Airport is now poised to be the world’s busiest international
airport by 2015.

Hallmark events

World Expos are “the hallmark events of a
world aspiring to strengthen its connections, celebrate its cultural diversity
and marvel at its technological wonders.”Each one is a catalyst for economic, cultural and social
transformation and generates important legacies for the host city and nation.

The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in 1851

The best-known first
World Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, in
1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
Nations." The Great Exhibition, as it is often called, was an idea of
Prince Albert, Queen Victory’s husband. It is considered as the first
international exhibition of manufactured products. It influenced the
development of several aspects of society, including art-and-design education,
international trade and relations, and tourism.

Dubai can boast to
have many strengths and advantages to see its bid succeed. And in addition to
those listed above, I would add security, good weather and hospitality. What
would you add?